WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will review former Enron chief executive Jeffrey Skilling’s conviction to see if he received a fair trial in the hothouse atmosphere of Houston after the collapse of the nation’s seventh-largest company in 2001.
It will also weigh whether prosecutors properly applied the “honest services” statute that helped lead to Skilling’s conviction and 24-year sentence.
The nation’s top court last week denied a request by former Qwest chief executive Joe Nacchio for a review of his insider-trading conviction. Nacchio and Skilling were part of the federal government’s crackdown on white-collar crime earlier this decade.
Skilling is serving his sentence at a low-security prison in Littleton.
In granting Skilling’s case, the justices put aside a request from the federal government that they at least delay a decision on Skilling until after the court had dealt with two other cases on its docket that challenge the honest-services law.
Skilling was president of Enron and briefly its chief executive before the company, the nation’s largest energy trader, sought bankruptcy protection in late 2001. He was indicted in the collapse in 2004 along with the company’s longtime chairman, Kenneth Lay.
Thousands of Houstonians lost their jobs and life savings when the company went under. Skilling’s petition to the court said the company officers were vilified.
The honest services statute has been become a favorite tool in pursuing both public corruption cases and those involving corporate greed. But the law has engendered a backlash from those who say it is used too freely.
Convicted CEOs and the Supreme Court
Jeffrey Skilling: Supreme Court agrees to hear the former Enron chief’s appeal of his 2006 conviction. Skilling argues that a law under which he had been convicted was unconstitutionally vague and that he had not received a fair trial in Houston, where Enron was headquartered.
Joe Nacchio: Supreme Court last week rejected the former Qwest chief’s appeal of his insider-trading conviction. Nacchio contends he didn’t withhold material information from the public about the company’s condition and that an expert witness was improperly barred from testifying at his trial. He is at a minimum-security camp in Minersville, Pa.
